After the Battle
by Nam Chu
Summary: What had happened after Po defeated the evil snow leopard? How Po and The Furious Five got along together? How Po earned Tigress' respect and her loyalty? Slight Ti-Po.


Hello Everybody!

I have read so many stories in this Kung Fu Panda section. I love them so much. So I decided to write my own story. I have noticed that there was so little story about what happened after the first Kung Fu Panda movie.

I planned to write a story about how Po and The Furious Five get a long together. It would be a bridge between the first and the second movie.

That's all I want to talk to you this time.

P/S: There might be some grammar errors on this story. I'm not a native English speaker, so bear with me about it, will ya? And I would be very grateful if one of you guys help me to beta-reading my story before I publish it.

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Kung Fu Panda. Damn it! But I own my OC.

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"Skadoosh!"

Shortly after, there was a huge explosion at the center of the Valley of Peace, indicating a fierce battle was taking place at the village. The Valley's citizen took a quick glance back to their beloved home, where they had no option but to abandon the Valley in order to survive, only to see a golden ring was spreading though out the Valley and quickly approaching them in a lighting speed.

A few moment later, a blast came with golden dust swept through them even knocked some off their feet. They had to throw their head the other way to prevent any injure would cause by the powerful blast. Mothers had to cover their infants from the rough wind. Heck, even some goose and other avian species had a free but unwilling ride of the blast.

That was of course unexpected. And people began to wonder what was happening at the center of the village, which made such an awfully powerful wind. Rumors and fear began to spreading out quickly, some said that Tai-Lung had made attempt to wipe out the entire Valley, others said that the evil snow leopard tried to bring the Jade Palace to the level of the ground. All of the village citizen started looking at the Furious Five, hoping their protectors had some kind of answers. But unfortunately, the Five had no idea whatsoever what was happening at the village. The only thing they knew for sure was that their master, Master Shifu, stayed at the Palace to defend the valley from Tai-Lung's rampage himself and without their helps.

The first rampage had happened almost 20 years ago, that time, the valley didn't have time to evacuate when Tai-Lung laid waste on the Valley. Many people had been mercilessly killed under Tai-Lung's claws and countless people had been seriously injured. There was no such thing as peace in the Valley of Peace at that time, how ironic it was. The streets were covered in red blood and corpses laid all around. Building looked like it had gone through a rough, very rough storm. Many houses, shops, carts had been destroyed and cannot be restored. These was dark times in the Valley of Peace. The survivors had to stay and clean the mess. After such an awful event, there were several consequences such as food shortage, robbers,… but the most awful thing was that cholera started to spread through the Valley if not for Master Oogway's vast knowledge of illness and herbs and acupuncture, there would have been even more people had to loss their lives that time. Just that one thought of the previous rampage was enough to send a cold chill into people's spine especially elders, who had to observe those terrible events. They could not help thinking of the worst could happen if they didn't leave their home before Tai-Lung's arrival.

"Masters, do you think Master Shifu has managed to defeat Tai-Lung?" a young goat nervously asked Monkey. She was old enough to understand the situation they were stuck at this time. She somehow knew what happened before, perhaps through elders' stories to scare the misbehaving children.

Monkey looked at the goat and then frown at himself, hoping he could do something more than evacuate the village. But what could he do? The Furious Five had been defeated single-handedly by Tai-Lung. And he knew that coming back would only make the situation worse. Reluctantly, Monkey looked at Tigress, the leader of the Furious Five, and waited for her commands.

Tigress appeared to be in deep thought, she knew Monkey long enough to know that he wanted to come back to the valley and fight with Tai-Lung even it was his end. 'Fight hard or die trying' was Monkey's motto. She was not fond of the idea of running away too and quite frankly she wanted a rematch with the evil Tai-Lung. So she started to weight the chance to win the fight but her thoughts was cut short due to Mantis' question.

"Hey, did anybody know where Po is? I haven't seen him since we left the valley." Mantis asked while looking for the missing panda.

"Umm… I haven't seen him either" Crane said when looking for his hat, which was blown away by the golden wind, probably not aware of the situation at hand.

Viper also started to notice that Po was missing. She had considered Po as her friend, so she started looking for him. Then a question started to form in her mind. "Do you think, by any mean, Po stayed back in the village to protect the Valley with Master?" she asked. The question immediately caught the attention of people around her, especially the Furious Five.

"Oh – Uh" Mantis murmured under his breath.

"Oh, Yes" Mr. Ping shouted from behind the leading group. "I think he's gone back to the Jade Palace". He knew his child could not abandon his dream like this, Po was a good boy and a great son, and he had given the old goose a life full of laughter and love. But his boy had matured, he needed to spread his wing to fly on the sky by his own. And becoming a Kung Fu Master was his dream since he was a child, and he just couldn't stand seeing his dream shattered bit by bit like that, at the very least when he could do anything and he meant anything to prevent it from happening even if it costed him his dear life. Mr. Ping started to form tears in his aged eyes.

After hearing the old goose's statement, Tigress started to feel anger growing in her heart. ' _That blasted Panda dared to disobey Master's command to evacuate the Valley and he wants to fight on his own. And I have to stay HERE?_ ' Tigress thought bitterly.

"I suggest we come back to help Po, he can't stand a chance against Tai-Lung" Viper suggested to Tigress as well as the other master at present.

"Yeah, I think we should help Po and take a fight instead of running away like this. I know Po, he might seems to be immature, childish and insecure but he was no coward by any mean, Tigress" Monkey said. He was the first one to accept the Giant Panda at the Jade Palace after some time. But saving the Panda from his end was just a camouflage from his true intention of getting another fight with the evil.

After one or two seconds, Tigress began to speak. Being a hardcore warrior, speaking was not her forte and her cold attitude as well as manners didn't help, at all. "I know … but our first priority is to protect the Valley citizen from harm and coming back is the exact opposite meaning of it".

She was hesitated, she wanted to come back, badly. After a moment of consideration, she thought she could at least send Crane back to check if Po had become dead body yet. "Crane" she called her comrade but apparently, the avian warrior was occupied himself on searching for his hat. "CRANE" she shouted, trying to get his attention.

Upon hearing his name being called Crane looked at the source of the sound to see an angry Tigress. "Yes" He answered, looking somewhat scared. And getting Tigress on her nerves was probably the last thing he knew before waking up in a medic room or an infirmary.

"Fly back to the Valley and see what's happening" She commanded. She knew it shouldn't be a problem to Crane. Due to his flying ability and his stealthy skills while in the air, he couldn't be spotted by Tai-Lung and even if he was exposed to Tai-Lung, he couldn't be attacked by the evil snow leopard.

"Yeah, yeah. Okay" Crane said, scratching the back of his head, looking a little bit hesitated. He feared for his life, coming back to face a killing machine was not something he planned to do that day. But he took off into the sky nonetheless.

The remainder of the Five waited patiently for Crane's report. ' _It can't be good_ ' Tigress thought.

High on the sky above the Valley of Peace, Crane was looking for anything that indicated a Snow Leopard's present but to his surprise, he could only spot a Panda, obviously the Panda Po, was stuffing his mouth with a bowl of noddle and there was no trace of Tai-Lung or Master Shifu at the village. He quickly flew back to the group to report his discover.

"I could only see Po but Tai-Lung and Master Shifu was nowhere to be found" Crane said to his comrades.

The group appeared to be in deep surprise, many question popped up on their minds like ' _Where is Tai-Lung?_ ', ' _Where is Master Shifu?_ ', ' _How can Po still be at the village?_ ' and most importantly ' _What the hell just happened?_ ' Obviously there had been a fight at the village. And now Crane said that there was no sight of any fighter.

"Thank God, my Po is still breathing" Mr. Ping said, his hand place on his heart while looking up to the sky with closed eyes. Relieved to hear that his (adopted) son was still alive at the moment.

"Think we should go back, if there was no Tai-Lung, there was no threat at all." Mantis quipped. The others only nodded in agreement.

Tigress was very curious of what had happened at the village. She knew for sure that Tai-Lung was coming and her master had stayed back to fight with him and that blasted panda stayed back to help defending the village but as Crane said, there was no sight of her master or Tai-Lung. That was weird, so weird.

After a moment, the leading group, the Furious Five and the village's elder as well as some village officers and guards approached the village's gate, seeing a cloud of dirt was at the center of the village. They walked towards the scene with high cautious. The Furious Five as well as the village's guards tensed, ready to get into a fight at any moment notice.

"What the …" Tigress whispered to herself at the scene of a silhouette walking in the cloud of golden dust with what looked like a straw hat and a long cape flying at the figure's back. Looked like some kind of heroes in fairytales which was told to get children to their bed. The silhouette was quite large and the way it moved its muscles, the way it walked looked somewhat familiar to Tigress and The Furious Five.

When the dirt settled, the silhouette slowly showed itself. And to everyone's surprise, Po was standing there, with a big pan on his monochrome head and a dirty apron on his chest. This only furthered the confusion of the Furious Five, especially Tigress. ' _How the damn hell that blasted Panda is still standing here? And why is he looked like he had engaged in a fierce battle? OHHH- don't tell me ..._ ' she thought. She looked at him, searching every corner of the panda. Obviously, he had some scratches, one big bruise on his left cheek, his fur looked disoriented and his face showed that he was exhausted … and happy? With all these facts, she was pretty sure that that Panda had engaged to Tai-Lung before they got there. Suddenly and unexpectedly, a burning question screamed in her mind _'WHERE IS MASTER SHIFU AND THE GOD DAMNED LEOPARD'_

Po stood there dumbfounded to see that his people, the Valley of Pace citizen, had come back to their home while they should be on their way to the Valley of Wind, a village that was 2 days journey from here, to hide themselves from Tai-Lung's bloodlust. Suddenly, he felt something on his throat and started to cough violently because of the dust or his battle injure, perhaps both.

Then, people started cheering, they thought that Po had have them from the evil snow leopard and save them he did. He was happy to see people cheering at him. To see those smiles after all these time was so rare. But now, they have nothing to worry. Some pigs tried to lift him up to celebrate but with his suburb weight, they couldn't move him an inch.

"That's my boy, that big, lovely Kung Fu warrior is my son" Mr. Ping loudly said in happiness while trying to get to the front line. He looked so proud of his son. Now he knew for sure that his beloved son had defeated Tai-Lung and more importantly still in one piece.

Po was touched by his dad's outburst, he ran to his dad to hug him, to be in his father's embrace. "Yes" Mr. Ping said while ran to his so, he paid people around practically no mind at all. He too wanted to hug his son so much.

"Thanks, dad" Po said while in his father's embrace. The pan started to slide to the ground and rolling. Po looked up and saw Mantis caught the pan with ease. The rest of the Five stood in front of him. Looked somewhat happy, relieved and a little bit of proud.

"Hey, guys" He greeted his childhood heroes and now his comrades, his friends. He was so happy to see them, actually, he always felt happy when he saw the Furious Five.

Tigress slowly walked towards Po, she was happy that there was no Tai-Lung to danger the Valley's citizen. She was still confused, however, but for now, it was not of importance. All that mattered was that Po was the village's hero for today. At least, he earned himself some of her respect.

She stopped before him and stood straight, looked directly into his jade eyes. She hit her left fist into her right palm and said "Master". Slowly bent herself downwards, slightly bowing to him, showed him that she appreciated and respected his actions of protecting the Valley of Peace. The rest of the Furious Five and people around him started to bow to him.

Po noticed a smile on Tigress' face. He had never seen Tigress smile before ever. Just her smile was enough to make his day. "Master" he smirked and repeated after her. Then suddenly, a horrible thought popped upon his mind. His eyes widen in sudden realization. His master, Master Shifu was still at the Jade Palace after his fight with Tai-Lung.

"Master Shifu" he expressed his concerns to Tigress. He needed to go back to the Jade Palace to check on Shifu immediately. He excused himself by slightly bowing to her and the others while widen his arms. He rushed to the Ten Thousand Stairs to the Jade Palace.

When Po got to the Sacred Hall of Warrior or what was left of it. He was horrified to see Master Shifu was lying on his back, unmoving. He thought of the worse could happened to the old master.

"Master! Shifu!" He quickly ran to the red panda. "Shifu! Are you okay?"

Master Shifu then weakly open his blue eyes. He saw Po was kneeing beside him, obviously relieved to see him alive. "Po … you're alive" then a dark thought came to his knowledgeable mind "Or we're both dead"

"No, Master, I didn't die. I defeated Tai-Lung" Po said sincerely.

"You did?" Master Shifu said, sounded astounded. He couldn't believe in his ears but Po's expression told him the opposite. He actually did defeat Tai-Lung. Finally, he could protect the Valley from the second bloodshed of Tai-Lung. And now, finally the old master could found peace in his mind.

"Wow... It is as Oogway foretold. You _are_ the Dragon Warrior. You have brought peace... to this Valley... and... and to me. Thank you... thank you, Po" He trailed off "... thank you... thank you... thank... "

Upon hearing his master's weak sound, Po began to freak out "No... Master! No, no, no! Don't die, Shifu, please... "

Shifu's eyes snapped open when he heard the Panda's pled. How the Panda could thought he was dead? Yes, he was critically wounded but he was sure that his time had not come … yet.

"I'm not dying, you idio... ah... Dragon Warrior" He quickly corrected himself after called the Panda as 'idiot' so many times before, he couldn't hold the urges to call him that even though the panda had proved himself worthy for the title of the Legendary Dragon Warrior. He smiled at the dumbfounded panda. "I'm simply … at peace. Finally".

Even though he had lost his adopted son he stilled felt relieved that Po had gotten rid of him. He was no cold blood parent but his son had caused so much suffering to his people, to his master, to himself, and most importantly to the Furious Five and the Dragon Warrior. The Five were like his children, his sons and daughters, but he had never showed them his affection or approvals or encouragement or any emotion save for anger and disappointment for that mattered. But the Panda Po's arrival to the Jade Palace was a surprise, a pleasant surprise, he could opened up his emotion, his soft side what had been faded due to time and the event Tai-Lung laid waste on the Valley. He had distanced himself from his emotion, always covered his soft side under his cold demeanor. But he knew better than that, he decided to open up himself didn't mean he could showed his affection publicly and frequently.

Po was so relieved to hear that his master was still strong enough to yell at him. If someday Master Shifu stopped yelled at him, that day would be the last day of the Earth's existence, not that he blamed the old master or anything, it was just the way it was and if it wasn't that way then there was something severely wrong with his master. "Oh … so, um… should I … stop talking?"

"If you can" Shifu quickly responded, still enjoying his peaceful moment. It had been a long, long time since the last time he could enjoy himself like this. His mind traveled to the old days when he was brought to the Jade Palace by Master Oogway himself. So many fond memories came back to him like the one time he completely destroyed the training dummy by hand, that time, he was 5 years old, and being a red panda, he was so small, compared to others. Master Oogway had praised him for his efforts and the tortoise's present always brought smile to him when he was young. Those memory had somehow brought sadness to his mind as he missed his master so much. Master Oogway was his second father, his mentor and his best friend. He missed how his master praised him, showed him that he was proud of him when he archived his goal in Kung-Fu arts. He couldn't help but thought if his training and teaching methods was right. His master had showed him that he was proud of him, encouraged him to archive many great things. Perhaps he shouldn't have push his students away from him like this, and he began to feel regret for this actions. He felt guilty for not showing any of them and especially Tigress nothing but anger and disappointment. _'I'm sorry'_ He thought.

He felt the urges to tell the Five that he was sorry for his cold and emotionless demeanor, for not encourage them and for not caring for them. And the most important thing was his fragile relationship with Tigress, she was his adopted daughter. It could be very tricky, she had completely distanced herself from her emotion just like him. The only things that mattered to her was the safety of the Valley and her training. And the lack of affection and caring from her foster father was not helping one bit, it even made things get worse. He had to talk to her about this, he had to tell her that he was so proud of her, that he loved her and that he would never gave up on her.

Po lied down and meditated next to Shifu. Master and pupil lied next to each other. Then Po started fidgeting and tried to keep himself from saying something to Shifu, but he found it rather difficult. The Panda Po was like a child, he just couldn't stop doing things. And the fact that he had a big mouth was not helping him in this kind of situation. He opened his mouth like he's about to say something, but stopped himself. He knew he better kept his mouth shut if he wanted to see the sun light again. As he lied down the after effect of the battle and the fact that he had just climb up all those steps to come to the Jade Palace slowly began to submerse inside him. He felt a bit exhausted and hungry even though he had a snack just about 2 hours ago.

"You want to get something to eat?" He asked the red panda lying next to him. Master Shifu hadn't taste his noodle and he was so looking forward to dining with his master.

Shifu opened his eyes and sighed deeply. Po always thought about food, the old red panda began to wondering what would have been happening inside the Panda's head. But he stopped himself shortly after he realized that he could never ever understood Po's logic and thought chains. And now, after a lengthy fight with the evil, he felt exhausted and hungry, beside, he hadn't tasted Po's foods. He had heard the Furious Five minus Tigress praised him for his excellent cooking skills. "Yeah" He told to his disciple.

Po was so happy to hear his master's response. Master Shifu, the Master Shifu, would sample his foods, this act alone would made his day. He chucked softly at the thought. When he sat up, preparing to depart, he noticed the Furious Five were staring at him and his master. Perhaps they were trying to comprehend what was happing.

Po looked at them and waved his hands in happiness. "Guys, I have just invited Master Shifu a mid-afternoon snack, you coming?"

Upon hearing the Panda's invitation, Mantis began to water his mouth. He couldn't help it. He had never taste anything as good as Po's noodle. He could not push a chance like this away even though he would have eat them daily due to the fact that the Panda Po would stayed here. "Yeah, yeah, of course, right, guys?" Mantis looked at the rest of the Five. They all nodded in agreement, well, all of them except for Tigress of course.

"Alright, let's go" Po said with much enthusiasm. He helped Shifu standing on his feet, his master was injured badly but the wound was not fatal. He just needed to rest for a few day and had some herbs apply on his wounds.

The group slowly made their way to the Palace's dining room, they walked in silence, no one spook as they lost on their own thought. It was rather an eventful day for everyone.

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That is it, for now. I will continue writing this story. I think it would be 7-8 chapters max.

Please give me some reviews, it only wastes a minute or two of your time but it means a world to me.

Thank you for reading and have a nice day.

From Vietnam with love.


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